OLD-TIME DEFENSE HAWKS TAKE FLIGHT — Many longtime defense lawmakers are set to leave Congress next month, POLITICO’s Darren Samuelsohn and Stephanie Gaskell report on the homepage. “At least half a dozen heavyweights, such as Sens. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Reps. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) and Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), either announced retirement or lost their seats this fall,” Samuelsohn and Gaskell write. “Their successors will carry far less clout on Capitol Hill — and few took office vowing to carry the mantle of the military.”

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Said retiring Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.): “The bench is very thin in terms of people who really have a broad range of experience and can make the connections.” Here’s the full story: http://politi.co/SQO4Ot

OBAMA MOURNS SPECIAL OPERATOR KILLED IN RAID — The president yesterday marked the death of a special operator who was killed during a rescue mission in Afghanistan. U.S. forces there saved an American citizen who had been abducted by the Taliban after intelligence showed the citizen “was in imminent danger of injury or death,” according to an ISAF news release. “Our special operators in Afghanistan rescued an American citizen in a mission that was characteristic of the extraordinary courage, skill and patriotism that our troops show every day,” Obama said in a statement.

The New York Times has identified the American citizen as Dr. Dilip Joseph, a medical adviser for a Colorado-based nonprofit. Six people were killed as part of the operation, NYT reports. “The special operators who conducted this raid knew they were putting their lives on the line to free a fellow American from the enemy’s grip,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a statement. More here: http://nyti.ms/TXB3Am

CONGRESS THIS WEEK — The House returns tomorrow and is set to name its NDAA conferees and approve a motion to officially start negotiating a final version of the bill. The Senate, meanwhile, reconvenes at 2 p.m. today. For your radar:

— The Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern, South and Central Asia is meeting Thursday at 10 a.m. to discuss terrorist networks in Pakistan and the proliferation of IEDs.

FISA TO EXPIRE AT YEAR’S END — The Senate is expected to decide this month whether to extend the FISA Amendments Act, which allows the government to intercept some electronic communications between foreigners and people inside the U.S. The authorities are set to expire at the end of the year. But, according to WaPo’s Ellen Nakashima, “opposition has surfaced among a small, bipartisan group of senators worried that Americans engaged in harmless communications with foreigners could be monitored without a warrant or other privacy protections.”

JOHN McCAIN: 5th FLEET TO STAY PUT — Don’t expect the Navy to relocate its hub in the Persian Gulf anytime soon, SASC’s top Republican said yesterday at a security summit in Bahrain, where the 5th Fleet is based. Washington has been put in a precarious position, the AP reports, ever since the Sunni monarchy there began cracking down on the country’s Shiite majority. More here: http://politi.co/SPmocC

SENATE CIA REPORT COULD REMAIN SECRET — The Senate Intelligence Committee is nearing the completion of a 6,000-page report on the CIA’s interrogation of terrorism suspects under the George W. Bush administration, with a vote to endorse the report scheduled for this week, ProPublica reports. But it’s unclear when — and if — the report will be made public. http://bit.ly/SM21gr

TRIVIA TIME — On this day in 1992, nearly 2,000 Marines arrived in Mogadishu, Somalia, to help restore order there at the direction of then-President George H.W. Bush. What was the operation called? For the answer, read on.

BEHIND THE CURTAIN: DoD CHIEF A COSTLY JOB — Being defense secretary can come at a high personal cost, according to Pro’s Kate Brannen. “To avoid conflicts of interest, nominees are asked to sell off their financial holdings in companies that do business with the Pentagon,” Brannen reports. “That doesn’t just mean big defense contractors like Lockheed Martin or BAE Systems. Thousands upon thousands of companies today serve as vendors to the Defense Department, which buys everything from soda to tanks for its troops and employees around the world.” http://politi.co/TRyBLH

WHAT PROS ARE READING:

— Canada’s F-35 rumblings could have big implications: Per Tim Mak and Kate Brannen, “American defense and industry officials [were] looking north nervously Friday after rumblings that Canada could drop out of the F-35 Lightning II fighter program, which would cause big problems for the Pentagon and its allies across the world.” http://politico.pro/122iNvq

— No guarantee cliff deal would pass: Per Darren Samuelsohn, “Boehner’s House remains very much the same unruly place that initially sank the 2008 financial rescue package, sending stock and commodity prices plummeting.” http://politico.pro/12gGG1K

WHO’S WHERE WHEN —

— Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) and CNO Adm. Jonathan Greenert are touring the Naval Support Activity Crane in Indiana today. “I look forward to showing Admiral Greenert how this naval installation continues to support our warfighters,” Coats said in a statement.

— At 1:30 p.m., Pam Mitchell, acting director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program, is speaking on Pew panel at the Newseum about overseas military voting.

RSVP TODAY: PRO DEFENSE LUNCHEON — Join us for the latest on sequestration and the defense budget at our POLITICO Pro Defense luncheon this Wednesday, Dec. 12, at noon. There’s more info here: http://politi.co/NijEgM. Questions for the panel? Tweet: #P2012. And Pros can RSVP to eholman@politico.com.

INDUSTRY INTEL: STOCKWATCH — Here’s how the top five U.S. defense contractors performed last week, compared to the NYSE composite:

— In his Sunday column, WaPo’s David Ignatius asks how the United States has so quickly become “the best friend of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.” His advice? The Obama administration shouldn’t bet big on any one player to emerge from the Arab Spring until the dust has settled. http://wapo.st/VSXf02

— Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has three options remaining, according to The Christian Science Monitor: 1) He could fight to the bitter, bloody end. 2) He could seek asylum in a third-party country — possibly Iran or Venezuela. 3) He could retreat to the “Alawite-populated mountains on the Mediterranean coast.” http://bit.ly/VsQxff

SPORTS BLINK — Navy beat Army 17-13 on Saturday to earn the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy, which is awarded to the team with the best record in games among the three service academies. Midshipmen QB Keenan Reynolds scored a TD late in the fourth quarter with an 8-yard rush to pull out the win. Navy has beaten Army for the past 11 years, and the Black Knights haven’t won the trophy since 1996, according to the AP.

Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, were in attendance at the game, which took place at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. The Army-Navy game is an annual tradition: This year marked 113th time the two rivals have met on the gridiron.

Check out POLITICO's slideshow of photos from the game, taken by our own M. Scott Mahaskey: http://politi.co/SXKkcm

DESSERT: SNL TAKES ON THE FISCAL CLIFF — In the show’s opening skit, Obama and House Speaker John Boehner come to an agreement: Boehner will get everything he wants — including no tax hikes — as long as his fellow Republicans promise to stop bullying him in the halls of Congress. Watch: http://bit.ly/QRpuxd (salute: Leigh Munsil)

FRIDAY’S TRIVIA ANSWER — The sole member of Congress to vote against entering World War II was Rep. Jeannette Rankin of Montana, the first woman in Congress and a pacifist who had also voted against entering World War I. Big salutes to the many readers who sent us the correct answer: Brian Finch, Jeff Barnett, Stephen Malone, Dave Southworth, James Pullen, Maj. Pilar Wennrich, Jim Halling, Stephen Francis, Michael Sanchez, S. Bako, Teddy Ky-Nam Miller, John E. Taylor, Anthony Marcum, Andrew Harris, Robert Cantelmo, MJ Kirdar, Ned Waters, Victor Tregear, Brad Robideau, Laureen Enright, Walker Zorensky, Connor O’Brien, John McKechnie and Richard Speaker.

TODAY’S TRIVIA ANSWER — Marines were sent to Mogadishu in 1992 as part of Operation Restore Hope. The operation, though, proved tragic. From the History Channel: “Rebels shot down two of the U.S. Army’s Black Hawk helicopters and killed 18 American soldiers. As horrified TV viewers watched images of the bloodshed — including the body of one dead soldier being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu — President Bill Clinton immediately gave the order for all American soldiers to withdraw from Somalia by March 31, 1994.” http://bit.ly/h4tNo3

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Authors:

About The Author

Austin Wright is a senior defense reporter based at the Pentagon covering budget, policy and national security issues. He has been with POLITICO since 2011 and was previously a web producer and author of the widely read newsletter Morning Defense.

Before POLITICO, Wright worked for National Defense magazine, interned at The Chronicle of Higher Education and taught sixth-grade English at Kramer Middle School in Washington.

Wright hails from Richmond, Va., and graduated in 2009 from the College of William and Mary, where he was editor of the student newspaper, The Flat Hat. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife, Leanne, and their dog, Kernel.